I was wondering if the deer population is down all accross the country. It is definately down where I live in New Jersey and I have similar reports from other Jersey hunters as well as some New York hunters. How about where you live?
We don't have anywhere near the pop. we use to!
After this winter, there will be many areas with a lot less deer and zero yearlings.
Also, the east coast guys are facing the coyote, one of the most efficient fawn killers in existence.
You will never get the coyote under control. The more you kill, the bigger the litters. I think you just have to face the fact that your numbers will be less than historical. In many areas that's a good thing.
We get one deer tag. Numbers have been falling since the bad winter kill off of '94. The public voted to not allow hunting cats with dogs or bait bears (which are effective ways of killing predators and keeping their numbers in check) which has taken a toll on them. We used to have 3000 cougars now we have around double that amount. Biologist will tell you that a cat will kill on the average one deer a week....52 weeks in a year...NOT GOOD! Now we have wolves coming in and establishing packs. Not a good future for deer here in Oregon.
Compare that to some states that give out 5 or 6 deer tags..... :rolleyes:
I'm in a hunt club 30 miles north of Atlanta, about 3,500 acres. Last year we started trapping coyotes and caught 72. No telling how many more are out there. I believe it is taking a huge toll.
When I lived in Jersey, the population being down would have been a good thing. It seemed like I couldn't walk through the woods without tripping over a half dozen scraggly 60lbers. A good winter kill leaves the strong behind and helps get things a little better balanced.
It is down here in SC. Local biologist said it is a problem all across the southeast. Coyotes and hogs are expanding here.
I didn't see any decrease where I hunt but I did see less bucks this year. I usually see about a dozen different bucks and get 20 or so on my cameras. This year I only seen about half that. I did see a significant dcrease in the turkey population everywhere I hunt though
down in ohio and kentucky coyotes!!!
In my area of the north east protion of Michigan`s lower penninsula, the deer population is a mere shadow of what it once was.
Minnesota's herd is doing well depending on whom you ask. In my part of the state (SE) we have been getting bonus permits for a few years and they are getting close to where they want the herd in many places and planned to cut back on bonus permits a little.
Then a deer taken last year tested positive for CWD. They are in the process right now of taking around 900 deer out of a circle of about a 10 mile diameter. They took around 450 by landowner permits and the USDA sharpshooters are now shooting. So far no more have tested positive. We'll see where it goes from there.
Still rockin' in IN. We set another kill record last season.
Here in Utah the mule deer herds are also down.The 2012 season we will lose about 13000 deer tags and go the 29 micro regions. But no one knows why there down, but after this winter there will be less.
There are gazillions down here.
Here in the piedmont of NC it seems like there are more deer than ever but it may be because there is less habitat. Urban Sprawl is reducing the size of wood lots. The bucks seem to be getting bigger.LCH
Talking with buddies,and with what i've seen lately we are definatley down here in southern iowa/nortern mo.Iowa shot over 1800 shed bucks in the last two years during a late doe season w/rifles.Can't understand it......Why do they do it so late?????Sickening think'n about what some of them would be like
From reading these post and talking to other hunters, my read is that in some states the population is down all over and in others only in some areas. Example: John Scifres says that they are rockin in Indiana, but another member of this site who I know and is from the NW part if IN. says it is definately down there.
For LKH-It is not only the coyotes here in NJ, but even worse are the bears. I have a friend who's daughter is a bioligist in NY and she claims the bears are a bigger threat mainly due to there nose. They don't miss many newborn fawns.
I personaly think that here in the east and particularly where I live in NE Jersey, the larger problem is the change of habitat. It is now mostly hardwoods with very little vegetation that the deer can reach. One thing I can say for sure is that it is not hunting pressure. That is way down here.
Tennessee population stable. Unit L has a limit of 3 does per day. feed them coyotes gut piles.
I personally saw fewer deer and no bucks. I hunted 40 days both on public and private grounds. Even though we set a new record this past year in Indiana, I think this was because there were no crops in the fields when the gun season started. Also, we have extremely liberal harvest numbers thanks to the Insurance industry. A person can legally kill over 400 in one year.
The state of Connecticuts way down in the last ten years also. The allocation of way to many tags along with exploding bear and yote populations have done them in. There's several so called deer management organizations that have just decimated the deer herd in zones. Night permits with starlite crossbows and unlimited tags have destroyed it. You have guys bragging about shooting 50+ deer a season. It's over Johnny!!
Has anyone seen a national study on deer populations; decline or rise? I've wondered over the last few years whether with all the hunting pressure over the last decade and beyond if the overall deer habits haven't changed to more nocturnal. We all know that as the season continues and the pressure increases with gun hunting, etc(more people in the woods) the deer move into a more nocturnal pattern. Could this be happening as a general rule for deer activity instead of just during the later seasons each year.
A ride down country roads at night seen to show as many deer as ever. Deer are creatures of habit and are excellent at survival so if they change their habits over a season it seems to me that over the long run they would move into a more safe environment of nighttime activity.
Bighornangler
My experience was south jersey farmland. A completely different world from North Jersey. I think Northern PA is similar to your experience in that there is less vegetation in some areas for the deer compared to years/decades ago. Also invasive species that are not very palatable for deer can hurt some areas more than others.
Every area goes through natural cycles... some are years, some are centuries... then you throw man into the equation and it is quite complicated and a bit more volatile behavior I think. My experience across the country though is that numbers are still increasing overall and I think most of the data out there supports that to be the trend.
Populations will always fluctuate. There are lots of factors that can affect them, most already mentioned. Deer themselves can be a huge factor. They can degrade the browse in their habitat badly enough to hurt their population. Most states have been working hard to lower their deer densities, not just for business interests (though that is also a factor) but for the health of the herd. This was also a unique year in terms of rut timing and intensity from what I can tell. Our population is coming back from two brutal winters in which we lost up to or over 30% of the herd. If you went by my season our numbers are still way down, but I know some people who saw plenty and took multiple deer with appropriate tags, or multiple family members. Perception of herd density can often be based on our own perception rather than real statistics.
About the only way deer populations are judged in IN and KY (the two states I am familiar with)is from harvest stats. Unfortunately, there isn't much of a way to take a census on deer.
Indiana's liberal harvest rules have been in place for many years and we still set records so I don't think that has much impact. I study this all pretty closely and I am convinced our population is still increasing. Every year hunters bemoan lower numbers but every year the harvest stats prove otherwise. Some even believe that DNR is faking the numbers. Go to hoosierhunting.com and see all the posts on deer numbers. You'll see what I mean.
Very, very few deer hunters (less than 1%) in Indiana kill more than 2 deer per year even though, theoretically, if you had a place to hunt in every county, hunted every day of the season and had a deer processing factory, you COULD kill around 400 :) We have a one buck rule and each county has from 0-8 bonus antlerless tags available.
We still don't have as many big deer as other midwest states because of the timing of our gun hunts. But we have decent numbers. I prefer that over horns anyhow.
The deer numbers are way down from where they were last hunting season. Coyotes combined with a lot of snow have made a huge difference in this area. Last bow season I saw four does. Four.
Calif. pop. are down. Mountain Lions having protected status is a big part of the problem.
It really depends on habitat
I had 5 feeding in front yard last night...20 feet from the front of my house...and due to town limits, can't hunt them.
My uncle lives in the mountains near Sparta, NC. Really remote. They used to be covered up in deer. They have really massive clearcuts all around him now, and have had really snowy, bad winters 2 years in a row. That and coyotes now moving in...all they've seen are the coyotes, but NO deer or even tracks